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Pattern

Mitten LiteratureEnhance language and literacy skills as
youngsters discuss The Mitten by Jan Brett
during this preschool activity from Bev J.

Materials: The book The Mitten by
Jan Brett, mitten cut out of construction papermagazines so that children may find animals
to cut out or for very young children already have them cut out.

Description: Read The Mitten by Jan
Brett and talk about the animals and how they all fit into the mitten.
For an art activity have the children glue the animal pictures on to the
mitten, as many as they can.

Clothespin
HangYoung children use small motor, color recognition
and matching skills during this activity by Erica T.

Materials: Cut outs of seasonal items, clothespins,
and clothes line or yarn.

Description: I use this for matching skills
and to help children strengthen those fine motor skills, Hang up a clothes line
or I braid together yarn to make cord, and hang in the corner of the room
with a table near by to set cut outs on. I have used snowflakes,
hearts, apples, leaves and mittens. Use whatever you would like. Make a
set of two of each by color and ask the children to find matches and hang
them on the line.

Math With MittensIntroduce the concept
of a pair with this activity by Stacey
who encourages young children to explore their sorting and matching skills.

Materials: A large assortment of construction
paper mittens of various sizes and colors, markers or crayons.

Description: Cut out pairs of paper mittens
from construction paper. they should be different sizes and colors and can be
used for a variety of math projects.Children can:1. Sort mittens and find matching
pairs.2. Make symbols on one mitten and
write the number of symbols on its pair, so the numbers
and symbols can be matched.3. Discuss the word pair
and its meaning. List other things that come in pairs: socks, shoes,
skis, skates, earrings, boots, gloves etc.

Description: Have child match pairs by colors
or pattern. For older children cut out a left and right mitten shape
from 2-4 different patterns of construction paper. Cover with contact
paper. Store in old shoe box. Clothespin the pairs together.

Matching
MittensMolly P. reinforces the concept of
same
with this mitten activity.

Description: Set up the clothesline by using
the 2 chairs. Ask the children if they know what the word same
means. Ask one student to come up and choose the same mittens. Then model how to pin
them up, reminding the students not to pull on the line or move the chairs. You
can have one or two students do this at a time or you can make it a large group activity
by calling on students to find mitten pairs.

Mitten
Behavior Management Chart If you need a way to let parents see at
a glance how their child's behavior is progressing, here is an idea from
Leslie.

Materials: Poster board, clothespins, and
a black marker.

Description: This is a take off on the stoplight
theory! Here is how it works.Instead of only 3 colors and chances there
are 4: red, yellow, green and blue, or colors of your choosing.I write each child's name on a clothespin
and at the start of each day all the pins are moved to Green
which means they've had a wonderful day and haven't even been in time out
one time!Blue
means they have either been in time out once or have been in time out more
but earned their way back for good behavior!Yellow
means they've had 2 or more trips to the time out spot, not so good.Red
means OH MY GOODNESS. This child had many time outs and we also will be
writing a note home to mom and dad.

Comments: You can also decorate you chart
by changing it seasonally. such as in winter we had a cartoon boy drawn with a
blue sweater and one red mitten one yellow mitten and a green hat. Then in spring
we had a butterfly with wings half red then blue and the other green and yellow.

Description: Before beginning Circle Time,
draw a large white mitten on the floor in chalk (if this is not permitted
in your school, a large sheet cut in the shape of a mitten works).
Read the story, as the animals enter the mitten choose a child or children
to be each of the animals and have them sit inside the mitten. At
the end of the story, when the bear sneezes, the children move to the outside
of the mitten. As a follow up activity have stuffed animals available for
children to recreate the story.

Counting
and Recognizing NumbersConnie Q. uses this activity to teach
children to count and recognize numbers and says, "My students ask to play
this game everyday."

Materials: Any pattern for the unit you are
studying. Ex: mitten for winter.

Description: Draw a mitten on construction
paper and cut it in half with a crooked line. On one half write a number.
On the other half, put that many small stickers, stars, etc. Make
1-10. During circle time, pass out the tops and bottoms of each mitten.
Then have each child find the other half of their mitten. We do this
right before lunch and then the children have a different lunch partner
each day. Use your imagination: Christmas trees with ornaments and
a star with that number; pumpkins with pumpkin seeds; turkeys with
feathers. Opposites also work great.

Dressing
for the WeatherLucy encourages
youngsters to be responsible for individual behavior, such as remembering
to wear a coat in the cold winter weather, with these 2 ideas.

Materials: Assorted clothes for different
types of weather, cardboard TV.

Description:1. Provide dress up clothes in your
dramatic play area that people wear in different kinds of weather.
For instance: galoshes, a raincoat, a big heavy coat, a wool scarf, mittens
and gloves, and snow boots. Collect lots of these because EVERYONE
will want to dress up for the weather!

2. Make a Weather TV out of a big cardboard
box. The children can take turns playing climatologist and holding
up various pictures and weather symbols. They seem to enjoy dressing up
in raincoats when they are forecasting rain, or scarves and mittens when
forecasting cold weather.

Transition Matching Mittens GameDuring this mitten game Sandy G.
promotes social interaction and the recognition of patterns.

Materials: Sets of Mittens in various patterns,
enough for each child to have a mitten. I cut some from wallpaper
books.

Description: Children are divided into two
rows, each hides a mitten behind their back. Ask one child in a row
to display their mitten for all to see. The child with the matching
mitten shows theirs and they both go to wash hands for snack time ( or
go to paint room, etc.) If there is an uneven number of children, teacher
gets to play!

Comments: Any object may be used, seasonal
objects work well.

Sequencing
and PatterningFoster better understanding of patterns
and sequence during circle time with this activity by Janet B.

Description: Each day when doing the calendar
in circle time we put up a calendar piece that has that days number
on it. Since we are studying snow and winter I use two different symbols:
snowman numbered with the odd numbers and mittens with the even numbers.
I always put number one on the calendar and the next day I will ask what
day is it? And the date? Children will say #2 and I will ask
whether we need a snowman or mitten. Since we used snowman the day
before they will tell me mitten today. Then we find #2 with a mitten
and place it on correct square. After the children get familiar with patterning
I can add 3 or 4 different symbols.

Comments: Children love it

Mitten
MathRobin J. encourages prek and kindergarten
children to create and extend patterns using mittens.

Materials: 8-12 pairs of mittens in various
sizes and colors, 2 baskets, thin rope,clothespins, paper, and crayons or markers.

Description: Put one mitten from each pair
into one basket and the corresponding mitten into the other basket. Take
a few mittens from one basket and hang them on the clothesline in a pattern
such as; red ~ blue ~ red, or solid ~ striped.Talk with the children about the pattern
you made. Invite the children to work together to copy the pattern
using mittens from the other basket. Let the children take turns
creating patterns of their own and copying each other's pattern.

Comments: Variation: Use the mittens to sort
by color shades, categorize them by size, or order them from smallest to
largest. Use as a concrete object for counting. Add socks and
hats to the basket for more complex patterns.

Description: Trace and cut 10 pairs of mittens
in various colors. On one mitten write a number and on the other
mitten put snowflakes that correspond with that number. Children then count snowflakes and find
the matching mitten / numeral.

Winter Time Song & Activity Ideas A collection of winter activities about
ice, cold & snow from Kim I.

Materials: Snow and a bucket or sensory table,
ice cube, paper mittens and string to fasten them, items to glue on and
paint or crayons.

Description:1. Free play ~ Let children play with
snow in a sensory table or bucket.2. Circle time ~ Play pass the ice
cube and sing this song fast then slow
to the tune of: Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Pass pass pass the ice cube, Pass it very fast.Pass pass pass pass, How long will it last.

3. Art ~ Decorate cut out mittens with
glitter or paint or coloring. If children
can cut, have them cut out the mittens themselves.

Mitten
Math: Graphing As prek and kindergarten youngsters participate
in this mitten math activity by Sherry M. they become familiar with
beginning graphing skills.

Description: Give each child a white
paper mitten and ask him to color it the color of his mitten he wore to school today!
Stress that the paper mitten needs to "match" his cloth mitten. As each child
completes his or her mitten help him / her place it on the graph in the
proper place. Spend a few minutes as a large group counting and comparing the mittens on the
graph.

Mitten Match HuntChildren identify
mittens that are the same & different in this mitten hunt by Laurie.

Description: Show children the mitten pairs
then an adult hides the mittens throughout the classroom. Children hunt
for the missing mittens, placing them on a rug or table and matching up
the pairs as they are found. Children can count the mittens or count how
many mittens are still missing.

Comments: The children always enjoy this
activity and want to play it over and over again! Children who are
really good "hunters" can become 'hiders' to give others achance at finding the mittens.The Mystery of the Missing
Red Mitten by Steven Kellogg is a good book to read before beginning
this activity.

Description: During my mitten unit I read
the story The Mitten by Jan Brett and have the children pretend to be the animals
in the story. Jan Brett has a web site you can print off a mask of each
animal that is in the story. I print them on a color printer, laminate
them, then glue them to craft foam.

When dry, I trim the foam to be ¼
inch bigger than the mask paper. Next, punch a hole on each side to thread
an elastic band to hold on a child's head. These are easy to whip up and
keep clean and in good shape for years.

As the children are pretending to be an animal
from the story I lay down a white blanket and have the children find a
place on the blanket pretending it is a mitten.We all squeeze on and then scatter around
the room when the bear sneezes.

The Mitten ActivityTeachers can expand upon this creative dramatic
play activity by Beth to create a class presentation for special
occasions.

Materials: Simple mitten pattern, animals
cut out of paper, a large piece of stretchy white fabric.

Description: After reading The
Mitten by Jan Brett, give each child two large mitten cut outs. They can decorate
them with crayons and markers if you wish.Each child also gets a copy of each animal
used in the story. They may also color the animals. Gather the children at your
circle area. Read the story again and the children put their animals in the mitten
as each one comes along in the story.

After the story is done, let the children
decide which animal they'd like to be. Ahead of time you have made
a very large "mitten" out of stretchy white fabric by sewing up three sides
of a large rectangle of fabric to make a pocket. As you reread the story,
or just call the animals over, they crawl into the mitten. It gets
very cozy! Then have the bear sneeze and they all pop out of the
mitten.They love to do this over and over!

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